Lorenzo de Finti: piano; Stefano Dall’Ora: double bass; Genrickson Mena: trumpet, flugelhorn; Marco Castiglioni: drums.Recorded 24th and 25th February 2018 by Gabriele Kamm at STUDIO 2, RSI, Lugano, SwitzerlandFollowing 2016’s ‘We live here’, this set continues to display Swiss pianist de Finti’s flowing piano lines, and the superb compositional skills of de Finti and Dall’Ora. De Finti refers to this music as chamber music, and the care with which they build the compositions reflects this.

The tunes have a signature organisation that divides each piece into segments that merge seamlessly returning to and folding into the main theme. However, there is also a wilder side to the way in which the quartet interpret and respond to the charts, this could be the way they incorporate abrupt stops, such as the way the The ‘Vortex of the Angel’ (which opens the set and a live version of which ends the CD) stops abruptly mid-trumpet, and the way that they work the improvised section of track 4. What is most compelling about the playing is the truly beautiful bass playing and stunning trumpet work, particularly the captivating lines in track 7, ‘Lied ohne worte’ (translated in the liner notes as ‘words would have been superfluous’). Track 2 showcases Dall’Ora’s pizzicato bass playing over some delicate piano lines, while track 1 (and its live version, track 8) has a deeply compelling arco bass solo. Tracks 3, 4 and 5 form a ‘little jazz suite in thee movements’ and address the plight of 40,000 Christian refugees who fled Quarakosh in northern Iraq when it was destroyed by ‘ISIS’ . The titles, ‘Sunrise’, ‘Black flag’, ‘Auun Duashmeya (homeland)’ are self-explanatory and the composition wrings the anger, fear, sadness and hope that one would associate with this terrible war. In a recent interview, de Finti says that he was inspired to write the suite after seeing a little girl in a news report about Quarakosh, ‘singing and dancing in such horrible circumstances’. With a few more years of experience of playing together, the quartet brings a deeper understanding to the ways in which they collaborate and support each other.